Cloud Computing Has To Be About Openness And Ease; Not Locking Developers In

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| There was a ton of press coverage today over Microsoft's
| not-particularly-surprising announcement of Microsoft Azure, its attempt to
| get into the cloud computing business, competing with the likes of Amazon,
| Google's AppEngine and (now) Rackspace, among others. Microsoft entering this
| space isn't a surprise at all, so it's a bit disappointing to see the sheer
| lack of details surrounding the announcement. Amazon has succeeded in the
| space because of two main things: incredibly cheap prices and ridiculous
| ease-of-use.
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[url]http://techdirt.com/articles/20081027/1630182657.shtml[/url]

PDC 2008: More details on Windows Azure, the Internet operating system

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| First of all, Microsoft doesn't have the greatest track record on the
| Internet, and it's not clear that developers will jump onto the Windows Azure
| bandwagon. Will businesses be willing to commit to a proprietary platform and
| lock their cloud applications to Microsoft's datacenters?
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| "When you hit the quota...it's possible we will block access to your site,"
| Microsoft's Manuvir Das told PDC after a session, Lap Around Windows Azure.
| Das did try to reassure potential developers blocking was not guaranteed, but
| noted: "We have the capability to do that and may have to do that."
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| In an interview reported by The Guardian, he said, "It's stupidity. It's
| worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign."
|
| Stallman warns that cloud computing is simply a trap to entice users' into
| entrusting their data and computing applications to proprietary systems that
| are beyond their own control and which service providers could make more and
| more expensive for users over time. He doesn't trust the vendors.
|
| "Somebody is saying this is inevitable -- and whenever you hear somebody
| saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make
| it true," Stallman said.
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| Web-based programs like Google's Gmail will force people to buy into locked,
| proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time, according to the
| free software campaigner
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